Like her half brother Johnstown, Jacola showed marked ability at 2and trained on to show excellentform at 3, her victories including a defeat of eventual Horse of the Year Seabiscuit by two lengths in the Laurel Stakes. She also raced well against males at 4, though without any stakes wins to show for it. She proved a success as a broodmare as well, foaling a champion in Phalanx and wielding some influence through her daughters.

Race record

25starts, 11wins, 5seconds, 4thirds, US$70,060

1937:

Won Selima Stakes (USA, 8FD, Laurel)

2nd Pimlico Futurity (USA, 8.5FD, Pimlico)

2nd Schuylerville Stakes (USA, 5.5FD, Saratoga)

3rd Spinaway Stakes (USA, 6FD, Saratoga)

1938:

Won Washington Handicap (USA, 10FD, Laurel)

Won Laurel Stakes (USA, 8FD, Laurel; new track record 1:37)

Won Maryland Handicap (USA, 10FD, Laurel)

2nd Ladies' Handicap (USA, 8FD, Belmont)

1939:

3rd San Juan Capistrano Handicap (USA, 12FD, Santa Anita)

3rd Dixie Handicap (USA, 9.5FD, Pimlico)

3rd Metropolitan Handicap (USA, 8FD, Belmont)

Honors

American champion 2-year-old filly (1937)

Assessments

Rated second among American 3-year-old fillies of 1938 by The Blood-Horse.

As an individual

A brown mare, Jacola had bad ankles.

As a producer

Jacola produced 12 named foals, of which 11 started and 10 won. Her important foals are as follow:

Jaconda (1941, by Belfonds) won two of her 19 starts. She produced 1952 Jersey Stakes winner King Jolie (by Platter). She is the second dam of 1963 Chicagoan Stakes winner B. Major and the third dam of 1977 American champion sprinter What a Summer and Grade III winners Sweet Old Girl and Proponent.

Phalanx (1944, by Pilate) was the American champion 3-year-old male of 1947. He sired 16 stakes winners from 258 named foals.

Lady Romance (1949, by Rustom Sirdar) won one of seven starts. She produced the minor stakes winner Gilbert B. (by Bolero U.) and the fine Ohio-based matron Pettibone Lass (by East Indian), dam of four state-bred stakes winners.

Jacola was bred in Kentucky by Arthur B. Hancock, Sr., and was purchased as a yearling for US$1,000 by Edward Friendly, who raced the filly in the name of his wife Nancy Carr Friendly. Jacola was trained by Selby Burch. After her racing career, she passed into the ownership of Abram S. Hewitt.

La France and her siblings were produced from 1921 Coaching Club American Oaks winner Flambette (by Durbar II), a half sister to juvenile stakes winner Ned O. (by Campfire) and to 1919 Coaching Club American Oaks runner-up La Rablee(by Rabelais), dam of 1930 Newmarket Stakes winner The Scout (by Sir Gallahad III) and third dam of 1949 Irish St. Leger winner Brown Rover. Flambette, in turn, is out of La Flambee (by Ajax), whose full sister Parthenis is the second dam of 1935 Doncaster Cup winner Black Devil. Produced from French dual Classic winner Medeah (by Masque II), La Flambee is also a half sister to Medee (by Ksar), whose son Medicis (by Congreve) won the 1936 Polla de Potrillos (Argentine Two Thousand Guineas) and Gran Premio Jockey Club.

Fun facts

While the Los Angeles Times of January 18, 1939, proclaimed Jacola to have been the “champion 3-year-old mare of the 1938 season,” an assertion that the paper repeated in its February 5 and 26 editions, the truth was that there was no voting for champion 3-year-old filly by either Triangle Publications (the owner of the Daily Racing Form and Morning Telegraph) or Turf and Sport Digest, which were considered “official” sources of American championships from 1936 until the establishment of the Eclipse Awards in 1971. (The Thoroughbred Racing Association, which also gained official cachet after it began polling racing secretaries at its member tracks to determine year-end championships, did not vote on year-end awards until 1950.) The consensus of racing historians is that Handcuff was the American champion 3-year-old filly of 1938.